In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor (developed by Arcen Games) is being pulled from Steam by the developers according to a news post on the game's Steam community page.
The game has a simple premise: in a world where humanity is plagued by killer robots they've decided to do the only logical thing and genetically engineer attack raptors to fight the robots. Players use simple WASD controls to navigate through levels and get revenge on futuristic killer Roombas. You can read more about the gameplay in our preview.
Unfortunately, sales for the game performed well below the developer's expectations; they have yet to recoup their marketing costs. As a result of the poor sales, they are going to be refunding all of their customers as well as letting them keep the game. In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor will then be removed from Steam and no longer available for purchase.
The game faced a number of challenges in its development. The game was delayed multiple times while Arcen Games worked on features such as a level editor and implementing new NPCs. Despite its $4.99 price point, the developer also felt that there weren't enough things to do in the game for its value. A lack of things to do was also the most common complaint from players of the game.
The game's release onto Early Access was intended as a sort of market survey. The developer wanted to avoid making the same mistake they did with Starward Rogue and putting a lot of resources into a game where a market for it didn't really exist. They also believed that it suffered from the perception of being a "Youtuber bait" game similar to Goat Simulator.
Arcen Games is planning to go back to their roots and develop a proper sequel for AI War: Fleet Command. In the meantime, if you'd like to grab a copy of In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor you'll likely only have a couple of days to do so. You can get it on Steam at a 10% discount until August 31st. The game is likely to be removed from the store sometime after that.
Quick Take
Unsurprisingly, we have a bit of fondness for good raptor-based games around here. It's definitely an underserved genre, and the games that do exist range wildly in quality. As unfortunate as the low sales for this game is, the developer is pulling out of a bad investment in the best way possible. They've indicated that they may very well revisit the concept in the future but right now they're bleeding money on this project and they have to pay the bills. I think this is just about the best way they could have handled it without leaving an unfinished husk of a game on the Steam store and I commend them for it.
Have you played In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor? What did you think of the game? Did you hope that Arcen Games would have been finished it despite the delays? Let us know in the comments below!
